Curiosity and the Need for a Tale

Curiosity and the Need for a Tale:

So, I’ve been watching this series, never mind which one, suffice it to say it centers around a sheriff in the hills of Kentucky and his old macho ways to deal with law enforcement.

What is interesting, though, in this context here, is the intro trailer which is being shown, as is custom in almost every series production, before the episode starts, serving both as recognition and attunement.

In this trailer now one sees an assortment of Kentucky landscape impressions speckled with short, very short, situational street life moments, people walking, a dog barking, a cock crowing, people gathering, people minding their business, etc. There is one scene, as stated very short, in which the camera, presumably mounted in or on a driving vehicle, passes a boy or young man, standing at the side of the road. It all happens so fast that, although the camera does not willingly hide his face, one nevertheless isn’t able to see it. The overall impression is simply: hey, one of the indigenous, one faceless inhabitant of a nameless Kentucky town, in other words, a stand-in, a character, a cliché. And this ignited my curiosity.

As hard as I tried, I could never get enough of a glimpse of the young man as I would have liked to to give him form, substance and history. And so I was left to imagine a story, add history and circumstance and construe a personality for him. I will never know how close to the truth I came in my construction or re-construction of this young man’s story. But that is not of importance here, what is, though is that it revealed to me something we all seem to be doing when we meet strangers, be it only for a little fleeting moment. Out of imperceptibly small, hidden details of which we, on a conscious level, are not even aware, we tend to construct a tale, we feel the need to spin a story, embed this person in a history, a status, a form and function, in other words: a reason for being and a purpose in life.

It seems to feed an inner need, for security maybe or structural integrity, to endow things around us, inanimate or animate, objects, living things, people, with a story, something which might explain their existence. If we don’t know and are not being told we likely make up a story for ourselves, a construct, so we will not be left bewildered and having no explanation what’s going on around us.

We are one of the most curious species on this planet, we seek to know, we must know, why. There is a hunger for knowledge, explanation, reason and tales. Out of the same impulse art is born. Without curiosity there would be no art.

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